Romanian border police officers and prosecutors from Timisoara Directorate for Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) dismantled a migrant trafficking network on Tuesday, September 13.

They captured four Serbian citizens suspected of smuggling migrants as well as a group of 24 Syrian immigrants who were trying to cross the border from Romania to Hungary illegally.

The 24 migrants were captured on Tuesday night, September 13, near the Cenad border crossing point in Timis county. One of the Serbian smugglers brought them there with a minibus. Near midnight, the smuggler took the migrants out of the minibus to cross the border to Hungary by foot. That’s the moment when the police officers captured the migrants and the smuggler.

Meanwhile, two other members of the trafficking network tried to cross the border by car, so they could pick up the migrants once they reached Hungarian territory. The police also managed to catch them.

According to a DIICOT statement, the Serbian citizens took the migrants from the asylum center in Bucharest. The immigrants usually paid between EUR 4,500 and EUR 5,500 per person to the smugglers.

DIICOT prosecutors are currently investigating the case.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Politiadefrontiera.ro)